Genesis: Joseph in a prison

“But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison…because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper (39:21-23).”

The Spirit makes use of Joseph as an example because he chose to suffer for being good. Joseph tended sheep along with his brethren. He being seventeen was not mature enough to keep his mouth shut. He carried an evil report of his brethren to his father. His brethren did things that in his eye amounted to injury of his father’s name as well as loss, so he reported before it could get out of hand. He was good before the ways of the world had got into the act and they fumed as though he were a betrayer. His brethren thought he breached the cardinal rule of brotherhood: ‘See no evil, hear no evil, Speak no evil.’ In the eyes of Joseph it was safeguarding the interests of his father. Ways of the world want others to join and not spoil the effect of brotherhood by tattletale. If one looks at what they were capable of we know what has penned rules of the ways of the world. The prince of the power of the air, it is called.

Joseph’s brethren were scapegrace. As we shall see further down they were ready to shed blood of their sibling, steal a kid of the goat to explain their crime and lie outrageously before their father and sell him to caravan of strangers. This brings us to the lie Jacob told his own father in order to usurp the blessing reserved for Esau. ‘…Be sure your sin will find you out (Nu.32:23).’

Joseph suffered for being good. It was not to be bracketed with reckoning for his father’s past or future of his brethren. It was goodness of God directly connecting with him. Grace of God, fullness of which would be revealed with advent of Jesus cast an aura about Joseph. The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all his fellow prisoners and grace was proof that God was with him.

Benny

 

 

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Joseph and Jesus

Just one point

Joseph was the first son born to Rachel, and the eleventh son of Jacob. The name Joseph signified May God add to me another (Ge.30:24). Rachel meant thereby to imply that the name was drawing attention not for itself but  something looking to future. Joseph is by all accounts an antitype of Jesus. For example we have the sons of Jacob selling  their brother to the Ishmaelite-Midianite caravan for 20 pieces of silver. Consider Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces, which of course is higher in value that owes to exchange rates of the time. “And they (chief priests) covenanted with him (Judas Iscariot) for thirty pieces of silver (Mt.26:15)”Jesus came unto his own, and his own received him not(Jn.1:11).

benny

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The Great Purge of 1937

Joseph Stalin,the great killing machine, according to Alexander Yakovlev, the Soviet aircraft designer could be charming when he wanted to.’ but when he became angry they (his eyes) looked daggers, and tiny red spots appeared among the pock marks on his face.’ He recalls how Stalin after berating a senior executive would say, ‘I see you like the quiet life. In that case you would be best off in a cemetery. That is the only place you can find tranquility. The corpses will not argue with you or make any demands upon you.’ Stalin knew his power, and he could play a cat and mouse game with others. It did not matter how the exalted and lowly he was, both his colleagues and party workers knew how vulnerable they were before him. Stalin made them squirm or even sweat when he indulged in jests that sounded innocuous at surface.
‘Why are your eyes so shifty today?’ he would at random ask some party worker he had known for years. ‘Why do you turn away? Why don’t you look me straight in the face?’ More often than not the hapless worker would be arrested later that day. In the Iztvestia newspaper offices boards used to hang up with names of heads of departments but the practice soon stopped. It was not worth making as the messenger girl explained to Ilya Ehrenberg,’here today, gone tomorrow.’
The midnight knocks and mysterious disappearances were extensive that alarmed even Isaak Babel, the author of Red Cavalry and he told the poet thus,’ Today a man talks frankly only with his wife,- at night with the blanket pulled over his head!’ Among the intelligentsia no one was sure what tomorrow would bring.
Many of Ehrenberg’s acquaintances kept a small suitcase with two changes of warm underwear permanently in readiness.
When Budu Mdivani, the former Premier of Georgia (whose part Lenin had sided against Stalin long way back) was falsely accused of conspiring against Beria and Yeshov, knew Stalin too well. When asked to confess in order to be spared of execution he said,’I have known Stalin for thirty years. Stalin won’t rest until he has butchered all of us,beginning with the unweaned baby, and ending with the blind great- grand mother!’ So he did all his comrades of old among whom was Abel Yenukidze, his closest personal friend and best man at his marriage with Nadhezda Alliluyeva. His fault? He interceded for Kamenev and Zinoviev, and also for introducing Zoya Nikitina into Kremlin and later she was suspected of trying to poison Stalin. It didn’t take much either for comrades or ordinary man on the street to be arrested and shot.
The great killing machine didn’t grind to a halt because of a Great Patriotic War or after.
Only his death put a stop to the reign of terror. When his death became known the people didn’t know whether to cry or sigh in relief. The emotional battering under which the whole Soviet Russia lived from day to day from night to morning had sapped all their inner resources to respond normally.
(ack:Stalin: the history of a dictator by H. Montgomery Hyde.)
benny

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God’s Role in History

Dispensation is a theological term. In American Heritage dictionary dispensation is defined as divine ordering of worldly affairs. Israel has conveniently cobbled an aggressive policy of laying out the extent of their territory on their perceived rights: their ownership as derived by God’s promise to Patriarch Abraham. “I will make of thee a great nation…” Gen  12:2 Ishmael is also of the seed of Abraham. Is it not? If Israel can use this as an argument cannot Palestinians also claim equal rights considering they are also of Abraham?
Suppose we adopt Israel’s argument that their nation was singled out for His blessings let me cite one passage from the  Old Testament. The story of Joseph traces his rise from prison  to be the counselor of the Pharaoh. He was cast out by his brethren and sold into slavery to Ishmeelites. Before long he found himself in the land of Egypt. As with so many who have been thrown into abyss of despair do find their feet to make a comeback Joseph also made a spectacular comeback this time to be the advisor of the Pharaoh. Because of his closeness to the Pharaoh he could save his brethren when famine in their land was at its worst. Let us only consider the divine providence at play here. Unless God had not blessed Egypt with abundance of grains and food will not the seed of Abraham have perished at that period of time? From this we can see that God blesses the Israel as well as other nations.
Do I hear someone saying that Egypt was blessed because of Israel? In the opening chapter of Exodus we read that ‘the land (of Egypt) was filled with them (Children of Israel). Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph..’(Ex. 1: 7-8) If God wanted to bless Israel at the expense of other nations He need not have made what seemed a blessing at a point of time, work like a curse at another time. They have suffered and also prospered owing to the simple Truth they are interconnected with other nations.  All these ups and downs are natural working of every nation coping with others so all the good and bad are absorbed by all. The challenges when faced and learned from prove to be our strengths. With these strengths any nation may confer a blessing to another nation when they are down.
This is how Oneness of things works.
benny

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